I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to incinerators for burning trash. More particularly, the present invention relates to an incinerator which first dries then burns trash and can reburn trash not completely burned during the first burning cycle.
II. Description of the Relevant Art
In a world increasingly encumbered by trash, disposal problems are increasing. A variety of attempts have been made at overcoming the problem of trash.
A common attempt at disposing of trash has been to bury the trash in a land fill whereby hills are created where hills did not once exist. For some time this solution seemed ideal. However, we now know that such sites causes leaching of trash-related fluids into the water table, even when the land fill is lined to make it "sanitary".
In addition to this serious environmental problem, land fills have proven so workable in the short term that they are filling quickly. Current estimates are that at least one-third of presently operating land fills will shut down from being filled by the mid-1990's. Indeed, land fills have proven only a limited response to the problems of mounting trash.
The common alternative to burying trash in land fills is that of trash incineration. While certainly eliminating all or most of the burned trash, incineration as presently known has at least three disadvantages.
First, there is the problem of air pollution resulting from the incomplete incineration of trash. Most known incinerators do not operate efficiently enough or at a high enough heat to produce a complete burn.
Second, there is the requirement of the input of a fuel such as gas or oil to accomplish the burn. This not only adds to the air pollution problem, but creates a new problem with respect to using limited resource fuels thereby making some burns cost-prohibitive.
Third, there is the inability of presently-known incinerators to burn damp or wet trash, thus resulting in incomplete burning of trash or excessive air pollution from unburnable trash.
Accordingly, the prior approaches to solving the problem of providing effective or convenient methods of disposing of trash, particularly through incineration, have failed.